“There must be some sort of medicine here somewhere.” Emokha carefully searched through the piles of bandages and disinfectant in the infirmary.

“Maybe they j-just don’t care if a demonling doesn’t recover.”

“Could be. You’d think they’d have something for the demons though. Hey, this chest is pretty heavy. Think we should break it open?”

“No. T-try these.” The ring of keys jingled as he proffered it.

“Nice.” Gloe squinted at the keys, then at the lock. “Where’d you find these?”

“On the d-demon. When I saw his gear I thought h-he might be important.”

“Good call. This one looks about right.” There was a neat little click. “Nice. And in here we’ve got a whole collection of potions. Now we just have to find the healing ones and ya’ll will be right as rain.”

“I khannot read this demon script.”

“M-me either.”

“Well that’s unfortunate. Does either of you know what color a healing potion is? These seem to be spread across a fairly broad spectrum.”

“I have khonsumed many, but we must assume the demons make them differently than my people. Ours are yellow.”

“B-back home they are red.”

“Well nuts. I don’t suppose we can just look for an orange one…just kidding.” He waved off their alarmed looks. “We’ll do trial and error. I should be able to tell the harmful ones with a relatively small amount.” He opened the first potion, dribbled a tiny amount into his hand and licked it up. “Toxic.” He grimaced and set it to the left, then reached for another.

“Is that s-safe?”

“Should be fine. As long as I don’t get an immediate lethal dose I should be able to heal through it.”

“Very well, But be khautious, please.”

“Right right.” He waved a hand airily, reaching for a third potion. “Just lay down and relax. This will take a while.”

“Oresus, congratulations on your victory. That demon you khilled seemed formidable.”

“Thank you” he said softly, then smiled. “I still h-have a long way to go to catch up. You killed far m-more than I did.”

An unusual degree of levity entered her voice. “Well, I can wield mores blade than you, after all. And my people are natural khillers, whatever our civilized demeanors might lead you to believe.”

“Y-yes” Oresus said uncertainly, then smiled again. “Now w-we can go to your people. No n-need for the Legion. I found the armory while l-looking for the infirmary. There’s still q-quite a bit in there. We should be w-well enough equipped to go straight north.”

“Yesssss” she answered uncertainly.

“S-something wrong?”

“No. Just, I was thinking about this fortress. At the moment it is ours, and ours alone. I know we khould not hold it against a siege, but at the same time, if one of their khompanies returned they khould not just waltz in, khould they?”

“W-well, no. Unless there’s a secret passage or s-something. The walls and gate s-should keep anyone without a great ability from sneaking in without a siege ladder or something.”

“Khould we not use that somehow? Khill some more demonlings before we leave? I khonfess I am made uneasy by how strong that demon was. And…” she cut herself off. “Nevermind. My first point stands.”

They were silent for a bit, the only sound Gloe’s muttering. “Poison. Probably some sort of embalming fluid or something? Weird. This one seems okay…no, there goes my stomach lining. Delayed acid or something. Disinfectant. Also disinfectant. I’ll set those aside. Anti-nausea medicine? For demons? Really?”

“Perhaps w-we could drop something off the walls on them. Like that d-demon tried to do to me.”

“Yes. If we khould entice them to stand still in front of the gate…although that probably would only khill a few.”

“Use the murder hole” interjected Gloe. “I think this might be an anti-fungal. Ick.”

“What is a murder hole?”

“Oh! I s-saw that when we entered. A hole in the t-tunnel between the two gates. It made m-me nervous.”

“Interesting. Perhaps we should khonsider the possibilities. I would like to examine this once we are healed.”

“Only a couple dozen more to go. Hang tight. Whoops, there goes a taste bud.”

...

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Focus. You’re an aberration, right? You should be able to do this.”

“At the school they taught us that Ki Manipulation w-was only for brawlers.”

“I wondered why I khouldn’t find either of you. What are you doing?”

“He thinks I should l-learn Ki Manipulation for some reason.”

“No. No. First of all, I’m not calling it that. That’s stupid. We’re calling the defensive energy shroud, and pushing it into objects imbuing.”

“Second, neither of the demons I’ve fought seem to have any idea how to do it. One was a reaver who was doing it using scripts, and the second not only didn’t do it but didn’t seem to know it was possible. If you learn this you potentially could stay ahead of future foes.”

“When you p-put it like that…I’ll try again.”

“Good. Start by just concentrating shroud around your own body. Pick a spot and try to make it thicker. That’s the first step.”

“R-right.” Oresus closed his eyes in concentration.

“Khan I learn as well?” Emokha's tone was...odd, but Gloe shrugged it off after a moment's thought.

“I’m not sure. As far as I can tell aberrations can do this because their abilities occur naturally. Presumably even the unpowered could if they somehow managed to accrue sufficient life energy to start generating shroud. But sojourners, reavers and probably chosen and such operate using scripts. That gives them incredible ease of use when it comes to abilities, but it might limit flexibility. We can try though. At the very least it wouldn’t hurt to learn how it works.”

“Then let us attempt it. Now that we are finished making preparations we have little else to do while we wait for one of the khompanies to return.”

...

“Waiting is m-making me nervous.”

“I can tell. No worries. I checked a fair distance behind them. It’s just the one company.”

“I hope they f-fall for it.”

“Well, no way to tell of course. But they’re marching in what looks like a parade formation to me, so I think our chances are good.” They sat in silence for some time, watching as the cloud of dust drew near, eventually resolving into a company of returning demonlings.

“Good. They didn’t s-see her.”

“Nah, she picked a really good spot. That’s the advantage of being able to fly I guess.”

“R-right.”

“Well, I think it’s time. You ready?”

“Yes. I think s-so.”

“Good luck then. I’m off.” Oresus was left sitting alone in the little chamber. He continued peering through the arrow slit.

The enemy company’s marching order was indeed showy. Each platoon was led by its commanding C-Type, with the grappler and demon marching at the front of the lead platoon. That was better than they’d dared hope. Again the plan was to kill as many as they could and then flee, but it looked like they might get lucky.

As the lead elements drew near the drawbridge dropped open with a bang and the path was open. The company advanced, their pace quickening a bit as their quarters beckoned. After a long patrol safety, comfort and rest beckoned.

Surprise was near total when the portcullis clanged down. The enemy perhaps should have found it suspicious that they couldn’t make out any welcoming figures, but their error was understandable. The fortress was not only strong and well-garrisoned but also fairly deep in demon territory. Moreover they had just completed a patrol in the direction of any likely enemy activity. The possibility of the fortress falling simply didn’t occur to them.

The lead platoon paid for their lack of imagination as the Oresus poured the boiling oil down the murder hole. He’d waited until the grappler and commander were directly underneath, so the command team took the brunt of it. Some of the base demonlings and vets in the rear instinctively scrambled back, but only some of them managed to make it out before the drawbridge began to raise.

The C-Types leading the other platoons hesitated, waiting for commands. When none were forthcoming they spread their underlings out in a combat formation, sending scouting parties to search for the origin of the attack. One of the C-Types moved forward, leaping atop the still-rising drawbridge. It stared directly into an inferno.

After the oil Oresus had dropped several kegs filled with a naphta-equivalent. And a shovel-full of glowing coals. The reaction was spectacular.

The grappler was still thrashing around engulfed in flames. There was screaming coming from up above somewhere, and the company commander was nowhere to be seen. The lead platoon’s C-Type was a burning lump on the ground, as were many of the vets. The living C-Type made a decision and began shrieking at the surviving demonlings. Those who were still responsive began to leap for it, and the C-Type flung as many clear as it could before the drawbridge closed completely.

Once it emerged it discovered the situation had changed again. Emokha had dropped on the rear platoon’s C-Type from the sky, shredding it with dual-machetes and claws. She was flitting through the now leaderless platoon, picking off the isolated and confused while avoiding more organized groups.

Now that he had closed the drawbridge Gloe leapt back up to the murder hole chamber. There he found Oresus shaking, standing over a still-smoking corpse. “What happened?”

“H-he came up the h-hole. J-just j-jumped up!”

“Wow. Looks like he took the oil head-on too. He must have been tough.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Good thing you had that scimitar ready to go, eh? Speaking of which, are you good?”

“I…y-yes.”

“Good man. Jump on.” Gloe picked Oresus up and ran to the parapet. Once there he threw a rope over the wall and slid down it. That drop was too far for him to make without injury. Once he was around half-way down though it was doable. He let go, pushing off the wall so the demonlings couldn’t anticipate his landing zone.

The new lead C-Type saw the rope and made an immediate decision. Picking up a nearby vet it leapt as high as it could, then threw the vet at the rope, shrieking orders the whole way.

Presumably the vet was to try and open the gate once inside. Unfortunately Gloe hadn’t tied the rope off, only kept it in place by imbuing one end to the top of the wall. It wore off while the vet was still ascending, with predictable results.

By that time Oresus had waded into the fray, scimitar in hand. Since he was the weakest of the three they’d given him the somewhat magical weapon. He wasn’t proficient with it, but given his strength it cut through basics and vets with ease.

Which was all that were left. Gloe had jumped one of the C-Types as it landed after the throw. His initial machete blows crippled it, then he hacked it apart. Emokha had been waiting for an opportunity, and when the last remaining C-Type focused on Gloe she buzzed it. It heard her coming, but she launched a simultaneous strike with four hands. It dodged one blow, parried a second but the other two sank home. She proceeded to rip it to shreds.

After that it was just a matter of clean-up. Again. The basics and vets were no pushovers, but each kill made the trio stronger. Without leadership the fight devolved into a mostly tactic-less head-on fight. C-Types or grapplers might have been able to make that work, but they were all dead.

Eventually the survivors realized the fight was lost and attempted to flee. By that point there weren’t enough left for scattering to do them much good. Given recent level-ups all three of their foes were faster than them, and one could spot from the sky. None of the demonlings made it very far.

There was no cleaning up the mess though, which meant that the ambush was not replicable. The victors took a short period to collect themselves and rest. Then they gathered up their loot and fled into the night.